It's undecideds in Ohio responding immediately to their answers. It's interesting. The orange is Women and Green is men's response. The higher on the graph, the more positive the sort of visceral response to what is being said.

That was a deft subject change to energy because she didn't know the answer to the question about mortgage.

I'm a bad mother. I'm so engrossed in this that I'm allowing my 20 month old son eat sugar straight. "Here honey, you want to dip you finger in the box of sugar, let me pour you a little bowl so I can get back to the debates and not have to supervise you".

Could she just not answer a question straight on? And this is the first time I've ever heard she and her husband went through a time of not having health insurance. And I wanted to scream when she said that Biden's wife's reward, as a teacher, would be in Heaven. I need another drink.

For someone who's been on the national stage for 5 weeks (vs. Biden's 20+ years), Palin MORE than held her own. She may not be pro-choice, but she's a smart, tough woman who has accomplished a lot in the state of Alaska, and I was impressed with her and what she has had to learn in the last month. Biden is definitely more qualified than she is, but I think she bests Obama for sure. He's accomplished absolutely nothing compared to her.

She kicked ass, you all know it, and it scares you to see that Obama might just go down the drain. So, instead of talking about the fact that she put Biden in a corner and forced him to admit that they are AGAINT GAY MARRIAGE, you sit around and talk about her accent and her hair.

Um, were you watching the same debate? She danced around that issue and Biden was like, "Yep. We oppose gay marriage." He was so matter-of-fact about it. And then she basically said, "I have the same position as Biden."

I think she did a good job... because her only job was to NOT sound like a moron. Not a high bar, but she sure met it. You're right on that.

I thought she did well. Very well. Biden sounded much more knowledgeable, but he's been around for 30 plus years. She's up to the job (especially with the unrelenting beating she has taken for the past 6 weeks).

For the record, this Texan is all for gay marriage, as are a lot of republicans down here in Austin and San Antonio. What sickens me is the credit that Obama receives for being in support of it when that has never, ever been the truth.

And Decorno, we must not have been watching the same debate because when the question was fielded to Biden he danced around by misstating the constitution and talking about equality and hospital visits. It was Palin who said (and I am paraphrasing all that follows) "I am not going to speak in nuances: we do not support gay marriage." Then the moderater took PALIN'S words and PUT THEM TO BIDEN: "Not speaking in nuances, where do you stand on gay marriage?" and he had no choice to flat-out answer the question that he had just dodged.

Why would he ever answer that directly without being prodded? He'd be held responsible for calling attention to a huge misimpression the American people have held for months.

i so meant to jump in on this sooner, and then i got caught up in a similar 'live blogging' situation on my facebook that had to do with the status i wrote... so basically nobody cares anymore, but ...

a) damn sarah for actually looking somewhat competent. although the expectations were so low, it's not like she could have really done much to get worse.

b) i agree with the best line of the night - i'm glad we all like israel? WTF??? she's so damn condescending about it too.

c) if that bitch gets any more june cleaver canadian i'm gonna punch her overbleached teeth into her pretty little head. grrrr!!!

If it were not for her notes, that she looked at constantly (when not grinning stupidly at the camera), she would not have answered a single question. Oh wait! She didn't answer any questions! She just danced around them......

Hey, anon at 9:24, say what you want-- Obama supporters were SHOCKED to hear it last night-- the internet is on fire with stories about it this morning. No misimpressions here. Just because you knew it (or claim to know it now) doesn't mean that the rest of, the majority of, or even a huge fraction of his supporters knew it. They did not-- and he was going to let them keep thinking that way all the way to the voting booth.

And calling me sweetie just makes you look like a typical scared anonymous liberal, so go right ahead.

Anyone who has been following the campaign- really, REALLY following the Campaign knew that. If you have a question about a specific stand, you research it. Doesn't take much seeing as we have the whole internet thing and all.

Confounded modern technology. You know, Robyn, May I call you that? In Alaska...

To the anon this morning re. Palin's hair stuck to her eyelash--YES. (Also, was she wearing fake lashes?) It was driving me totally crazy. I got a good belly laugh this morning out of my best friend saying that they were calling them Speed Bangs in the bar where she was watching.http://www.independentcritics.com/images/speedSPLASH.jpg

I'm so glad everyone's hitting on the important issues here...like the pronunciation of "nuclear."

While it's not technically the correct pronunciation, it looks like Palin and Bush are not the first to fall prey to metathesis, the switching of two adjacent sounds. And if you pronounce "iron" as "eye-yern" instead of "eye-ron," you do it too. Even the democrat's beloved Clinton has mispronounced nuclear (along with Eisenhower and Carter). It's listed as a usage for the word in Merriam-Webster. If you'd like to fight MW on it, they'll send you a letter defending it.

So, um back to the issues. Gosh, I'd like to see what you do tolerant people do to people with dyslexia.

As a Obama non-supporter, I've known all along that he is against gay marriage.

But what does that say about your candidate that you have to research his stance on a subject to know how he feels about it?

Talk about her bangs, talk about her accent, talk about her looking at her notes, talk about her "talking points." She blew everyone away and you know that or you wouldn't be posting up here right now. Even democratic leaders are saying she won the debate.

If she'd gone out there without being so prepared you'd all be saying, "OMG! why didn't she just bring some notes with her?" and "WTF? All she had to do was memorize some talking points to get by!" but instead, let's talk about her eyelashes.

And decorno, with regard to McCain calling it quits for Michigan and Obama always seeing this as a race in 50 states (or 57, whatever): just because you don't read about or acknowledge Obama pulling out of states doesn't mean it hasn't already happened or that he didn't bother campaigning there in the first place. All McCain did was admit it.

She didn't kick ass. She didn't fall on her face. She did o.k. She clearly didn't WIN the debate. You have to be pretty intelligent to win a debate against Biden. All she did was dodge questions and keep repeating the same answers. Of course she sounded somewhat competent. Speech writers gave he a list of allowed responses.

Robyn, you make no sense. You say you are for gay marriage, yet support a candidate that is against it - then your single criticism of the Obama/Biden is that they are also against it. Your impression as to whether most people know this about the Obama platform is just that, an impression. Unless you are conducting a scientific poll yourself or can point to one, you are in no position to quantify who is believing what. In the debate is was Palin sidestepping around whether the constitution guaranteed equal civil liberties to same sex couples {not gay marriage} and whether McShame/Palin would support that through their policies.

She did not "kick ass" and she did not "blow everyone away" (except maybe McCain, and maybe that's why he chose her. WINK,WINK!!). She tried to charm everyone with her wink and smile so they wouldn't notice her lack of knowledge. As the old saying goes, "If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit!" She was knee deep......